1. A delegation dispatched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) is on a visit to Peru and Paraguay from May 28 to seek cooperation on the e-government system. The delegation is led by the Director-General of the MOIS Infrastructure and Information Protection Policy Bureau and composed of officials of such government agencies as the Public Procurement Service, the Korea Forest Service, the Statistics Korea, the National Information Society Agency and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).

2. On May 28, a Republic of Korea-Peru seminar on the e-government system took place at the latter country’s National Civil Service Authority (SERVIR), bringing together a senior official of SERVIR and some 120 high-level members of the central government of the country.

° The seminar featured presentations on achievements regarding the ROK’s e-government system and its way forward by MOIS; transparent procurement process at Narajangteo (national market place) by the Public Procurement Service; statistics as a basis for the establishment of objective government policies by the Statistics Korea; the prevention and management of forestry-related disasters and forestry informatization using mobile drones and other new technologies by the Korea Forest Service; and national cyber security systems for guaranteed safe services and methods for analyses of their shortcomings by MOIS and KISA, drawing keen interest from the local officials.

3. In the ensuing meeting with high-level officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and other Peruvian government agencies related to the e-government system, the two sides discussed in depth such topics as enterprise architecture for projects conducted by the center for ROK-Peru e-government cooperation; information and communications technology (ICT)-based regional development projects mainly in e-villages; and smart cities.

4. In a bid to assist the smart city project that central and provincial governments of Peru have been working hard on since 2017, the ROK delegation held a forum on the e-government system and smart cities on May 29, bringing together some 120 senior members of the parliament and other agencies.

5. Lately, Latin America has increasingly been asking for the ROK’s cooperation on the e-government system and seeing a growing demand therefor. In that light, the visit of the ROK delegation to the region served as an opportunity for the relevant government agencies of the ROK to respond jointly to such demand and pave the way for closer e-government cooperation with the region. The seminar and forum held by the delegation are expected to help the ROK’s outstanding e-government system expand its presence across Latin America.

6. The interagency delegation will also visit Asuncion, Paraguay, where it will hold a forum on e-government cooperation on June 1, the first of its kind since the conclusion in September 2017 of an ROK-Paraguay memorandum of understanding for e-government cooperation, to seek ways to help the Paraguayan government with its strategic efforts to build an integrated data center and achieve postal logistics informatization.

* unofficial translation